MAROPENE RAMOKGOPA: Think globally, act locally, to drive sustainability in SA

Over the past decade SA has reasserted its position in the global arena as an important player and partner in the global development discourse. Most importantly, the country continues to leverage its power to advance developmental priorities that will ensure it builds a capable, ethical developmental state and contributes to the shared prosperity of the SA people. 

Under the leadership of President Cyril Ramaphosa SA has grown and asserted its influence and reach in global multilateral forums, through its active participation in the Brics (Brazil, Russia, India, China and SA) forum, the Group of 20, the AU and its peace & security council, and the UN, among others. This has ensured that we cement ourselves as an emerging force in the global system of governance. We have also contributed immensely to promoting the interests of the Global South.  

Historically, SA has used its diplomatic relations, through political solidarity, to address the stubborn challenges of colonialism and apartheid. Our country’s approach to international relations has always been based on the premise “There shall be peace and friendship” as stated in the 1955 Freedom Charter.  

Our country’s democratic dispensation continues to mature while we address the legacy of apartheid. Equally, we have matured in our approach to peace and friendship in the dynamic global context. It is for this reason that one of the seven priorities of the sixth administration is “Building a Better Africa & World”. SA continues to prioritise regional integration and multilateralism. 

It is against this backdrop that our participation at the upcoming UN summit on the sustainable development goals (SDGs) is a strategic imperative for advancing our national interests and contributing to the global agenda for peace, development, prosperity and sustainability.  

The SDGs summit will take place on September 18-19 at the UN headquarters in New York on the margins of the 78th general debate of the UN General Assembly. The summit marks the midpoint between the adoption of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development in 2015 and the 2030 deadline. 

The SA delegation to the summit will be led by Ramaphosa and my participation at this high-level political forum in support of the president will advance the objectives to promote our national interests through our four key foreign policy pillars, including:

• Mobilising support for our domestic objectives as outlined in the National Development Plan (NDP);
• Supporting the African agenda and promoting Africa’s sustainable development by advocating for Africa’s priorities under the AU’s Agenda 2063;
• Influencing the reform of the global multilateral architecture; and
• Advancing the agenda of the South in the North-South Dialogue platform. 

Equally, our participation in the SDG summit carries a deep appreciation and consideration that SA’s diagnostic report on the progress made on SDGs tells a story of great triumphs, great defeats and even greater resilience. We recognise that our participation represents the voices of millions of people represented by different sectors consisting of both qualitative and quantitative data. 

In preparation for the upcoming summit the ministry in the presidency for planning, monitoring & evaluation, and the UN resident co-ordinator in SA, Nelson Muffuh, convened a multi-stakeholder SDG dialogue in Pretoria. The theme of the dialogue was “Strategies for Accelerating Sustainable Development Goals Achievement in SA”. 

The multi-stakeholder dialogue attracted a diverse range of experts and panellists from different sectors, including government departments and institutions, the SA business sector, members of the diplomatic corps, civil society organisations and activists, development partners and research institutions.

At the core of the discussions was to find strategies to strengthen partnerships and collaboration for development at a national, regional and international level to accelerate the achievement of SDGs and meet the domestic imperatives of the country as envisioned in the NDP Vision 2030 and the AU Agenda 2063 more broadly.  

While the panellists and participants highlighted notable strides made and milestones registered over the lifespan of our democracy, we must also face hard truths of challenges and failures. Throughout the dialogue the overarching theme in all contributions was that there have been some reversals in the gains made over the years. This reality is particularly harsh for women and girls in SA, who have become the face of poverty and inequality.  

The socioeconomic shocks of the Covid-19 pandemic, the increased frequency of natural disasters, the 2021 July unrest, the increasing prevalence of gender-based violence and femicide, and several other intersecting factors, are contributing to a decreased standard of living for our people, particularly the most vulnerable.  

We must guard against the anti-progressive approach to development where short-term gains have been favoured over long-term benefits. The real developmental context is that the short-term plans are vehicles to implement medium and long-term plans. Therefore, we must take action and advocate for a paradigm shift in the understanding of development in the context where there is marginal improvement in the SDGs. We must assert that if a programme or intervention is not sustainable, it is not developmental in nature.  

We have the blueprints for transformation —  the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, the Addis Ababa Action Agenda on financing for development, the Sendai Framework on Disaster Risk Reduction, and the Paris Agreement on climate change. The SDG summit must energise efforts to implement these visionary agreements and lay the path to development, transformation, and sustainability. We anticipate that the summit will adopt a concise, forward-looking, and action-orientated political declaration as its outcome document with the aim of accelerating international action to improve people’s lives. 

Beyond the summit, we will strengthen our efforts to work with other stakeholders, including our developmental partners, to develop monitoring and evaluation systems that will assist SA in making clear linkages between the SGDs, the AU Agenda 2063, our own lodestar, the NDP, the medium-term strategic framework, and integrated development planning at a local government level, to ensure there is synchronisation in planning, interventions and financing of these frameworks.   

To translate our plans into action we must be prepared to ask the tough questions and lead decisively.  I am still the woman with the plan for the development agenda of our country to implement better, to revitalise the economy so that jobs can be created and incomes can increase in households, and to build human capabilities through an education and skills revolution, innovation and modernisation for service delivery so that people can fend for themselves and improve standards of living. 

We will achieve this through concerted efforts to build the capacity and capability of SA as an aspired developmental state that delivers for and changes the livelihoods of its populace for the better. Our achievement of the above will move us towards the attainment of the national development targets, which will in turn be the successful implementation of the developmental aspirations in the Agenda 2063 and the goals set out in the SDG Agenda 2030. 

• Ramokgopa is minister in the presidency for planning, monitoring & evaluation, and national chairperson of the National Planning Commission.